Draft-rigging



E. F. MECHLIN.

DRAFT RIGGING.

APPLICATION FILED 050.9. I915. RENEWED MAR. 27. I920.

Patented Oct. 19, 1920.

2 SHEETS SHEET 1.

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DRAFT RIGGING.

APPLICATION FILED 050.9. I915. RENEWED MAR. 27, I920.

Patented Oct. 19, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 mlllllllllr a J VII/WI ///I W ERNEST F. MECHLIN, 0Z6 WASHXNGION, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

DRAFT-MGGING.

Specification of Letters Patent. Pate t d O t 19 1920 Application filed December 9,1915, Serial No. 65,886. Renewed March 27,1920. Serial No. 368,444.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ERNEST F. MECHLIN,

a citizen of the United States, residing at- Washington, in the District of Columbia,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Draft-Rigging; and I do hereby .declare the following to bev a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to draft rigging for railway cars and more particularly to that class of draft rigging in which a plurality of springs,generally two, are arranged end to end and commonly called tandem draft rigging.

To this end, main features of my invention, generally stated, consist in providing in a tandem spring draft rigging a friction mechanism adapted to be brought into action by movement of the coupler, the said friction mechanism acting to supplement the usual spring mechanism and add to the capacity of the draft rigging.

There are other features of my invention as will appear from a more detailed description of the same taken in connection with the accompanying drawings chosen for the purpose of illustrating one embodiment of the invention, the scope whereof is pointed out in the claims.

Throughout the specification and drawings, like numerals refer to like parts.

Figure 1 is a horizontal central section of a draft rigging, embodying the invention, a portion of the friction casing being shown in plan.

Fig. 2 is a vertical central section. of the device shown in Fig. 1.

- Figs. 3 and 4 are vertical sections taken respectively on lines 33 and 4-4 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 5 is a detail elevation of the central portion of the gear, the springs and one of the cheek plates, however, being removed, and

Figs. 6, 7 and 8 are detail views, illustrating, respectively, the friction casing, the wedge block and a friction block.

The numeral 9 designates the draft sills to which are connected the tandem stop members or cheek-plates 10 each provided with the usual front stop, 11, rear stop 12, an intermediate stop 13, and each also preferably provided with the limiting stops 14.

The numeral 15 designates the front spring member, preferably consisting of the well known arrangement of outer and inner coils, the said spring member being located between the front follower 16 and the front intermediate follower 17 Interposed between the rear intermediate follower 18 and the rear follower 19 is the rear spring member 20 which may likewise comprise inner and outer coil springs.

Connected to the coupler 21 is the yoke, comprising an upper arm 22, a lower arm 23 and a rear connecting member 24. The arms of the yoke are each provided with a thimble block 25, the forward faces of which, in the normal position of the gear, are adapted to contact with the rear face of the front intermediate follower 17, the rear faces of said thimble blocks being preferably spaced slightly from the front face of the other intermediate follower 18.

The numeral 26 designates the friction shell or casing (see Fig. 6) which is preferably rectangular in section and provided with forwardly and rearwardly extending arms 27, the said arms each projecting laterally and being of less vertical height than the casing. The casing is provided with an internal friction surface 28 extending longitudinally thereof. It is also preferably made to fit between the inner faces of the intermediate stops and the thimble blocks 25, and the arms 27 of the casing are adapted to engage the front and rear walls of the intermediate stop and to maintain it in position. 7

Within the casing are the movable friction elements, preferably comprising a plurality of friction blocks 29 each adapted on their outer faces to slidingly engage the friction casing and provided on their inner faces with angularly disposed portions adapted to engage the correspondingly disposed portions 30 and 31 of the wedge block 32. Each of the intermediate followers 17 and 18 is preferably H-shape, the upper and lower arms of which are adapted to engage the intermediate stops 13 above and below the arms 27 of the friction casing 26. The follower 17 is provided with a central open ing 33 adapted to receive the rear end of a plunger 34 which extends forwardly from the wedge 32 through the spring 15 and into contact with the front follower 16.

The operation of the described form of my invention is as follows: When the coupler v followers and is forced rearwardly as in bufiing the front follower 16 is moved rearwardly compressin the front spring member 15 against the fo lower 17 and. at the same time the plunger 34 is forced rearwardly causing the friction mechanism to move relatively to the friction closin 26. Owing to the contact of the rear ends of the friction blocks with rear intermediate ,xfolllower 18, the rear spring member 20 is compressed and thus forces the friction elements 29 with gradually increasing pressure against the friction casing. It Wlll be noted that owing to the clearance space between the thimble blocks 25 and the follower 18 the yoke is entirely relieved from pressure under buffing action and the whole force of the blow is transmitted to the mechanism by means of the lunger member. Underdraft strains, owing to the fact that the friction mechanism remains stationary, no frictional resistance is developed and the device operates in the well known manner of the ordinarytandem car spring draft rigging.

It will be seen that because of the arrangement of the various parts of the mechanism the entire force of buffing is transmitted from the coupler to the gear anpl thence to the sills by rigid cast members entirely independentof the yoke or other draft transmitting member and that the draft strains are entirely tension strains on the yoke or other draft transmitting member thus'enabling the use of wrought metal in its most advantageous relation for this element. It will also be noted that in the arrangement of the single embodiment of the device as shown and described that buffing forces, which are of greater magnitude than the draft strains, are resisted by the combined spring and friction action and that draft strains are resisted by the spring action alone.

There are many other advantages of the invention as will be evident from the aforegoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing among which may be enumerated the elimination of recoil shocks, and the form of the friction mechanism which permits of the use of a large number of the parts of the tandem spring draft rigging now commonly in use without change.

Having now fully described the invention, although it is to be noted that the terms used are used in their descriptive and not their limiting sense, what I claim is:

1. In a draft rigging, the combination of a coupler, of a plurality of springs, means for communicating draft forces from said coupler to said springs and means independent of said first named means and involving friction elements movable lineally parallel to the line of draft with a displacement equal to that of the coupler for communicating buffing forces in some only of said springs.

2. In a draft rigging, the combination of a coupler, springs, followers for each of said springs, a casing located intermediate said springs, friction elements cooperating with coupler, a plurality of springs arranged in tandem, means for compressing said springs upon a movement of said coupler in either bufiing or draft, and friction means arranged between said springs, said friction means being movable by the coupler in one direction only.

5. In a draft rigging the combination of a coupler, a yoke, a plurality of followers, cheek-plates each provided with a plurality of abutments, the said followers normally contacting with said abutments, a casing between the arms of said yoke and adapted to normally contact with two adjacent followers, friction elements within said casing, said elements being movable by a movement of the coupler in one direction only.

6. In a draft rigging, the combination of a coupler, tandem arranged springs, followers for each of said sprin s, a friction casing located between the sai springs, friction means within said casing, and rigid means springs a movement equal to the displacement of the said follower, and means for preventing movement of said casing.

8. In a draft rigging, the combination of a coupler, a yoke, tandem arranged springs, a casing interposed between said springs, nonrotatable friction elements within said casing and means independent of said yoke and movable by said coupler in one direction only for imparting to said friction elements a movement equal to the displacement of springs, the yoke being provided with thimble blocks also arranged intermediate the springs, the casing being positioned between the said blocks, and friction means cooperating with said casing.

10. In a draft rigging the combination of a yoke, tandem arranged s rings within the yoke, follower acting mem ers for the adjacent'ends of the springs, thimble blocks connected to the yoke intermediate the ends thereof and adapted to actuate one of said members upon movement of the yoke in one direction, a' casing intermediate the said blocks and. friction means adapted to cooperate with said casing.

11. In a draft rigging the combination of a pair of cheek-plates each rovided with front, rear and intermediate ollower stops, a casin adapted to fit between the adjacent faces 0 the said intermediate stops, said oasing having lateral projections adapted to engage the vertical stop faces of said intermediate stops, and friction elements cooperating with said casing.

. 12. In a draft rigging, the combination of a coupler, a yoke, tandem arranged springs and followers, a casing interposed between said springs,-friction' elements within said casing and means independent of said yoke, and movable by said coupler for impartin to said friction elements, a movement equa to themovement ofthe said coupler.

13. In a draft rigging, the combination of a yoke, tandem arranged 5 rings within the yoke, followers for each 0 the said springs, a casing interposed between the two immediate followers, the yoke being provided with thimble blocks, the said thimble blocks being adapted to engage one of said immediate followers, and being spaced from the other, friction means cooperating with the said casing and means' for moving said friction means.

14. In a draft rigging, the combination of a coupler, springs, followers for said springs, means for compressing said springs upon a movement of said coupler, friction means located between said springs, said friction means being movable by the coupler in one direction only, the total movement of said friction means being approximately equal to the displacement of the said coupler.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

ERNEST F. MECHLIN. 

